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AN 


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ADDRESS 

INTRODUCTORY    TO    A 

COURSE    OF    LECTURES, 

AT   THE 

COLLEGE  OF   PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS, 

SESSION    OF    1  860  —  61. 


BY 


VALENTOE  MOTT,  M.  D. 

EMERITUS   PROFKSSOR  OF    ()PER*TtVK    SUROEKY    AND    SURGICAL   ANATOMY, 


THURSDAY,  NOVEMBER  7,  1850. 


PUBLISHED   BY   THE  CLASS 


I 


^a))0 


N  E  W  Y  O  R  K  : 

JOSEPH    H.    JENNINGS,    PRINTER,    122    N  A  S  S  A  U,  STR  EET  . 

1850. 


EmmiEMFB  nf  3}lciiirni€wrlimg  niik  €wrjiE0iii  Mm  '^A 


AN 


INTRODUCTORY    TO    A 


COURSE    OF    LECTURES, 


AT    THE 


COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS, 


SESSION    OF    1  830  —  51. 

BY 

YALENTIIE  MOTT,  1.  B. 

EMERITUS   PROFESSOR.  OF    OPERATIVE    SURGERY   AND    SURGICAL    ANATOMY, 

THURSDAY,  MOVEMBER  7,  1850. 


PUBLISHED  BY   THE  CLASS, 


NEW  YORK: 

JOSEPH    H.    JENNIjNGS,    PRINTER,    122    N  A  S  S  A  U.  S  T  R  E  E  T  . 

1650, 


In  lHrBH0. 


Gentlemen  : 

Before  I  proceed  to  deliver  the  remarks  introduc- 
tory to  the  few  lectures  which  I  am  to  deliver  to  you, 
I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the  satisfaction  I 
feel  in  once  again  addressing  the  class  of  the  College 
'  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  as  one  of  its  Professors, 
nor  from  acknowledging  the  kindness  of  my  present 
Colleagues,  of  the  Trustees  and  Regents,  who  have  so 
willingly  conferred  upon  me  the  rank  which  enables 
me  to  assume  the  responsible  duty  of  instructing 
you.  A  considerable  period  of  time  has  elapsed 
since  my  last  connection  with  its  Faculty  ceased ;  and 
if,  during  that  time,  I  have  been  placed  in  the  position 
of  an  opponent  to  its  success,  believe  me  to  be  can- 
did in  saying  that  I  have  witnessed  its  successful 
struggles  against  powerful  competition  with  pleasure, 
and  with  all  the  interest  and  enthusiasm  of  an  Alum- 
nus, for  such,  almost,  I  am,  have  marked  its  gradual 
progress  in  usefulness,  and  in  the  esteem  and  favor 
of  the  profession.  Among  its  Professors  and  Trus- 
tees are  many  of  my  oldest  and  most  valued  friends 
and  pupils,  and  I  should  be  callous  to  the  best  feel- 
ings of  our  nature,  could  I  reflect  upon  my  past  con- 
nection with  this  School,  and  not  rejoice  in  its  pros- 
perity, or  feel  pleasure  in.  my  re-association  with  its 
interests  and  occupations, 

I  have  arrived.  Gentlemen,  at  that  period  of  life 
when,  to  look  back,  is  more  pleasant  than  to  specu- 
late on  the  future  ;  you,  on  the  contrary,  redolent  of 


the  present,  look  on  the  past  only  as  a  matter  of 
amusing  contrast  and  idle  curiosity.  Intimately  as- 
sociated as  I  have  been  with  the  progress  of  this  Col- 
lege— sole  survivor,  with  one  exception,  of  the  orig- 
inal Faculty — sole  survivor  of  that  Faculty  of  Colum- 
bia College,  which,  merged  in  it,  may  be  justly  consid- 
ered as  its  immediate  predecessor,  and  in  some  sort 
its  origin,  I  shall  not,  I  trust,  be  charged  either  with  se- 
nile garrulit}^,  or  personal  egotism,  if  I  occupy  a  por- 
tion of  your  time  this  evening  with  a  brief  notice  of 
the  early  history  of  the  Institution  of  which  you  are 
proud  to  rank  yourselves  as  among  the  Alumni  and 
Students;  of  some  of  those  who  accompanied  me  in 
its  formation  and  progress  ;  of  the  scenes  and  persons, 
"  quceque  ipse  felicissime  vidi  et  quorum  pars  magna 
fui ;"  of  the  School,  with  which  after  so  long  an  inter- 
regnum, I  again  happily  find  myself  associated. 

There  are  facts  connected  with  the  subject,  which 
I  am  vain  enough  to  think  that  I  alone  can  detail — 
facts,  which,  as  matters  of  Medical  History,  ought  not, 
I  think,  to  remain  unrecorded,  and  which  will  be  new 
to  many — nay,  even  to  most  of  those  who  now  hear, 
me,  many  of  whom  have  been  my  pupils,  a  few  per- 
haps my  contemporaries,  and  more  to  whom  they  are 
novelties,  even  as  to  the  very  names  of  the  dramatis 
personcB.  I  cannot  think,  then,  that  either  to  those 
who  review  the  past,  contrast  the  present,  or  specu- 
late on  the  future,  they  can  be  devoid  of  interest ;  and 
I  will  further  venture  to  indulge  the  hope  that  the 
name  of  him  who  details  them,  whose  voice  can- 
not, in  the  course  of  natural  events,  very  long  con- 
tinue to  be  heard,  will  not  detract  from  their  intrin- 
sic interest  in  the  breasts  of  his  hearers. 

The  patriarch  who  relates  the  scenes  of  our 
revolutionary  struggle,  while   paying  a  due  tribute 


to  the  glories  of  a  Washington,  a  Putman,  a  Gates, 
and  a  Lee,  to  whose  genius  the  victory  of  which  he 
boasts  may  be  due,  can  tell,  after  all,  but  little 
of  the  conflicts  in  which  he  participated,  save  the 
part  which  lie  immediately  played,  and  the  leader 
under  whom  he  acted.  But  I  have  never  heard 
this  called  egotism,  and  no  such  charge,  I  trust, 
will  be  brought  against  me,  even  thoudi  I  use  the 
ego  ijjse  somewhat  frequently  during  the  following 
remarks. 

I  graduated  in  the  year  1306,  a  student  of  the 
Medical  Faculty  of  Columbia  College,  in  this  city, 
at  that  time  the  only  Medical  School,  and  which  had 
then  existed  for  many  years.  It  was  originally  called 
King's  College,  but  at  the  close  of  the  war,  received 
the  name  of  Columbia  College,  a.nd  the  organiza- 
tion of  its  Medical  Faculty  was  completed  in  1792. 
The  Faculty  at  the  time  of  my  attendance,  was  con- 
stituted as  follows  I  The  President,  and  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Surgery,  was  Dr.  Wright  Post ;  Dr. 
D.  Hosack  occupied  the  chair  of  Materia  Medica 
and  Botany ;  Dr.  Hamersley,  that  of  the  Institutes 
and  Practice ;  Dr,  Stringham,  that  of  Chemistry ; 
and  Dr.  J=  R.  B.  Rogers,  that  of  Midwifery  and  the 
Diseases  of  Women  and  Children. 

The  reputation  of  the  two  former  of  these  gentle- 
men is  matter  of  Medical  History,  but  of  all  of  them 
I  shall  briefly  relate  my  personal  reminiscences. 

Wright  Post  was  at  that  time  a  man  of  about  forty 
years  of  age,  tall,  handsome,  and  of  fashionable  ex- 
terior, wore  long  whiskers  and  his  hair  powdered 
and  turned  back  and  tied  in  a  queue.  Those  who 
recollect  his  thin  worn  figure  in  his  later  years^ 
wrapped  in  a  furred  surtout,  could  scarcely  have  re- 
cognised in  him  the  elegant  gentleman  of  my  early 


6 

days.  Dr.  Post  had  at  this  time  attained  to  the  very 
highest  rank  in  his  profession,  both  as  a  physician 
and  surgeon,  and  although  equalled  in  the  extent  and 
renown  of  his  surgical  practice  by  his  distinguished 
colleague  in  the  New  York  Hospital,  Dr.  R.  S.  Kis- 
sam,  he  stood,  perhaps,  alone  in  its  lucrative  prac- 
tice and  in  the  estimation  and  confidence  of  the 
higher  walks  of  society.  He  was  unrivalled  as  an 
anatomist,  a  most  beautiful  dissector,  and  one  of  the 
most  luminous  and  perspicuous  teachers  I  have  ever 
listened  to,  either  at  home  or  abroad.  His  manners 
were  grave  and  dignified ;  he  seldom  smiled,  and 
never  trifled  with  the  serious  and  responsible  duties 
in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  which  no  man  ever 
more  solemnlj^  respected.  His  delivery  was  precise, 
slow  and  clear,  qualities  inestimable  in  a  teacher, 
and  peculiarly  adapting  his  instructions  to  the  ad- 
vancem.ent  of  the  junior  portion  of  the  class.  He 
w^as  one  of  the  first  American  pupils  (preceding  Dr. 
Physick)  of  the  celebrated  John  Hunter,  of  London, 
from  whose  lips  and  those  of  Mr.  Shelton,  he  im- 
bibed those  principles  of  practice  which  he  after- 
wards so  ably  and  usefully  applied  in  the  course  of 
his  brilliant  career.  As  an  operator  he  was  careful, 
slow  and  elegant,  and  competent  to  any  emergenc}' 
contemplated  by  the  then  existing  state  of  Surgical 
Science. 

Two  great  achievements  are  upon  record  to  attest 
his  powers.  He  was  the  first  in  this  country  to  tie, 
successfully,  on  the  Hunterian  principle,  the  femoral 
artery  for  popliteal  aneurism.  On  the  second  mem- 
orable occasion,  I  had  the  honor  to  assist  him ;  it 
was  a  case  of  ligature  of  the  subclavian  artery  above 
the  clavicle,  without  the  scaleni  muscles,  for  an 
aneurism  of  the  brachial,  involving  the  axilla.     The 


patient  came  to  me  from  New  Haven,  in  company 
with  an  intimate  professional  friend  of  mine,  the  late 
Dr.  Gilbert ;  the  aneurism  was  cracked  and  oozing, 
and  supported  by  layers  of  adhesive  plaster,  by 
which  its  rupture  was  prevented,  and  life  maintained 
until  the  time  of  the  operation.  The  brother  of  the 
patient,  a  merchant  of  this  city,  whose  family  Dr. 
Post  attended,  naturally  preferred  that  he  should 
perform  the  operation,  as  I  was  then  quite  young. 
To  this  wish  I  cheerfully  acceded,  but  lost  thus  the 
chance  of  gaining  a  surgical  laurel  for  my  brow — 
the  operation  never  having  been  performed  in  this 
country  before,  and  but  once  in  Europe,  and  then 
unsuccessfully,  by  its  first  projector,  Mr.  Ramsden, 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  London.  This  is 
now,  happily,  a  well  recognised  surgical  procedure, 
which  six  times  I  have  successfully  performed.  In 
this  operation,  the  American  needle  for  the  ligature 
of  deep-seated  arteries  was  first  used  in  this  city, 
and  it  belonged  to  me. 

Dr.  Post  was  equally  eminent  as  a  physician ;  his 
mind  was  well  stored  with  clinical  facts,  a  peculiar 
characteristic  of  the  truly  great  practitioner.  He 
was  a  calm  observer  and  eminently  practical ;  and 
for  strict  punctuality,  and  courtesy  towards  his  jun- 
iors and  a  scrupulous  regard  for  truth,  was  never 
exceeded.  After  a  career  of  forty  years  as  a  Pro- 
fessor of  Anatomy,  he  retired  into  private  profes- 
sional life,  in  which  he  continued  active,  with 
occasional  intervals  of  ill  health,  until  his  death,  in 
the  sixty-fourth  year  of  his  age.  He  died  univer- 
sally esteemed,  deeply  regretted,  and  his  name 
belongs  to  posterity. 

I  shall  next  pay  a  passing  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
his  distinguised  colleague,  cotemporary  and  medical 


8 

rival — would  that  I  could  say  his  friend — Dr.  David 
Hosack.  A  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Bard,  in  this 
city,  and  abroad  the  favorite  of  CuUen,  Chisholm, 
Blane  and  Gregory,  no  man,  in  his  day,  was  more 
eminent  for  his  varied  learning,  his  luminous  writings, 
always  plausible,  if  not  profound — and  the  very  high 
standing  he  held,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  in  his 
profession,  and  in  the  estimation  of  the  public. 

Dr.  Hosack  read  his  lectures,  and  no  man  was 
ever  more  emphatic,  impressive  and  instructive. 
His  tall  and  bulky  form,  his  piercing  black  eye,  his 
sonorous  voice,  and  the  dignity  of  his  bearing, 
stamped  him  at  once  as  a  remarkable  man,  and  fully 
qualiJSed  him  for  the  pre-eminence  to  which,  as  a 
lecturer  and  physician,  he  proudly  aspired,  and  to 
which  he  fully  attained.  No  one  better  maintained 
the  dignity  of  his  calling,  nor  preserved  more  com- 
pletely the  decorum  of  the  lecture  room,  nor  sus- 
tained the  attention  of  the  student.  Punctual  to  a 
moment,  he  was  most  impatient  of  interruption  after 
his  lecture  had  commenced,  and  no  one  ventured  to 
enter  his  room  five  minutes  after  the  appointed  hour, 
without  receiving  a  severe  and  well-merited  rebuke* 
Fixing  his  fierce  eye  sternly  on  the  tardy  student,, 
he  w^ould  invite  him  down  lower  and  lower  towards 
the  desk,  and  then,  after  an  awful  pause,  advise  him 
to  "  get  his  buckwheat  cakes  a  little  earlier  in  the 
morning." 

For  any  enterprise  calculated  to  advance  the  in- 
terests of  the  profession,  or  the  public  welfare,  he 
was  always  ready  5  his  skill  as  an  orator  and  his 
tact  for  presiding,  on  all  public  occasions,  was  un- 
surpassed, and  at  the  bedside,  his  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  disease,  his  accurate  diagnosis,  his  won- 
derfully quick  perception  and  his  ready  resources 


9 

stamped  him  a  practitioner  of  the  highest  class.  In 
the  decline  of  his  life,  he  retired  from  the  active  du- 
ties of  his  profession  to  his  beautiful  country  seat  at 
Hyde  Park,  which  he  adorned  with  exquisite  taste, 
and  enjoyed  in  his  retirement  his  favorite  pursuit  of 
horticulture,  which,  with  the  science  of  botany,  was 
his  greatest  hobby ;  and  while  in  the  full  possession 
of  health,  strength  and  intellect,  neglectful  of  the 
warnings  to  which  he  had  so  energetically  directed 
others,  fell  a  victim  to  apoplexy,  leaving  behind  him 
a  reputation  second  to  none  of  the  luminaries  of  our 
country. 

The  name  of  Dr.  Edward  Miller,  Professor  of 
Practice,  stands  among  the  highest  in  the  list  of 
American  contributors  to  Medical  Science^  His 
writings  are  voluminous.  On  the  subject  of  Yellow 
Fever  he  is  an  eminent  authority.  He  strongly  sup- 
ported the  theory  of  Non-contagion,  in  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  views  of  his  distinguished  colleague. 
Dr.  Hosack.  A  report  upon  the  health  of  the  city, 
transmitted  by  him  to  the  then  Governor  of  the 
State,  in  which  he  developed  at  length  his  views  on 
this  and  other  epidemic  and  endemic  diseases,  their 
causes,  &c,  ranks  as  one  of  the  ablest  contributions 
ever  made  to  the  history  of  these  important  subjects. 
His  Essay  on  Cholera  Infantum  evinces  great  prac- 
tical and  pathological  sagacity  ;  and  the  numerous 
productions  of  his  pen,  in  the  form  of  reviews  and 
monographs,  to  be  seen  in  the  New  York  Medical 
Repository,  of  which,  with  Mitchill  and  Smith,  he 
was  a  co-editor,  are  durable  monuments  of  his 
talents,  his  industry  and  his  fame. 

He  was  of  middle  stature,  very  handsome,  wore 
powder,  and  was  singularly  neat  in  his  attire ;  a  ba- 
chelor, and  his  manners  were  peculiarly  mild  and 


10 

bland,  and  to  all  he  was  exceeding!}^  affable.  He 
was,  in  short,  a  perfect  gentleman,  and  a  man  of  sin- 
gularly pure  morals.  As  a  physician  he  was  of 
high  repute.  His  practice,  if  not  the  largest  in  the 
city,  was  at  least  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  one  of 
his  contemporaries  in  respectability  and  lucrative- 
ness ;  and  his  advice  in  counsel  was  anxiously  sought 
for  by  those  of  his  brethren,  especially,  who,  at  a 
time  when  Medical  theory  was  discussed  with  a  zeal 
that  created  a  truly  partizan  spirit,  espoused  the 
cause  which  he  so  ably  and  successfully  maintained. 
His  connection  with  the  Faculty  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege was  brief,  and  he  refused  to  participate  in  the 
coalition  of  the  schools.  He  died  of  some  acute 
affection  of  the  chest,  at  the  age  of  about  sixty  years, 
leaving  an  enviable  and  enduring  reputation. 

Dr.  James  S.  Stringham,  though  perhaps  to  most 
of  you  scarcely  known  by  name,  was,  nevertheless, 
an  amiable  and  worthy  gentleman  of  great  accom- 
plishments. Born  in  New  York,  he  graduated  in 
Edinburgh,  and  was  a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Black, 
of  that  city,  and  for  the  time  at  which  he  taught, 
a  chemist  of  the  highest  order.  He  was  a  very  pleas- 
ing and  perspicuous  lecturer,  and  the  first  teacher 
and  professor  of  Medical  Jurisprudence  in  this  coun- 
try. A  premature  death,  in  1817,  of  disease  of  the 
heart,  at  St.  Croix,  blasted  the  promise  given  by  his 
early  years. 

The  Professor  of  Practice,  Dr.  Hamersley,  a  gra- 
duate of  Edinburgh,  was  a  man  of  talent,  a  logical 
and  eloquent  expounder  of  the  theories  of  the  day, 
but  irascible  in  temper,  eccentric  in  his  habits  and 
manner  of  teaching,  and,  like  many  other  learned 
theorists,  an  indifferent  practitioner  :  requiescat  in 
pace  !     I  well  remember  that  on  one  bitter  winter's 


11 

morning,  in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  snow  storm,  I 
alone,  of  all  the  class,  had  awaited  for  half  an  hour, 
the  arrival  of  the  usually  very  punctual  Prof.  Ham- 
ersley.  As  I  was  going  away  in  despair  of  his  com- 
ing, I  met  him  at  the  gates,  battling  with  the  storm, 
his  arms  extended  before  him,  according  to  custom, 
and  his  hands  clothed  with  enormous  furred  gloves. 
"  How  is  the  Thermometer  to  day,"  said  he — his 
customary  salutation,  for  the  state  of  the  atmosphere, 
as  a  cause  of  disease,  was  a  great  hobby  of  his — and 
then,  learning  that  I  was  the  only  one  of  the  class 
who  had  braved  the  inclemency  of  the  weather  to 
hear  him ;  "  Come  back,"  said  he,  "  and  I  will  give 
you  the  lecture,  as  a  reward  for  your  perseverance 
and  punctuality."  This,  however,  I  stoutly  refused 
to  allow  him  to  do,  assuring  him  that  I  could  not 
consent  selfishly  to  appropriate  to  myself  alone,  the 
valuable  doctrines  which  were  so  well  calculated  to 
benefit  the  profession  generally.  He,  I  believe,  was 
not  a  little  disappointed,  and  I  not  a  little  pleased  at 
my  escape.     He  was  an  honest  man. 

The  Obstetrical  Department  of  the  faculty  of 
Columbia  College  was  confided  to  Dr.  J.  R,  B.  Rod- 
gers,  the  father  of  the  present  eminent  surgeon.  Dr. 
J.  Kearny  Rodgers,  so  many  years  my  colleague  in 
the  New  York  Hospital,  and  now  one  of  the  Trustees 
of  this  College.  In  person  Dr.  R.  was  small,  grace- 
ful, had  a  face  of  extreme  interest,  and  was  of  very 
accomplished  manners.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Edin- 
burgh, a  practitioner  of  eminence  and  peculiarly 
skilled  in  his  own  department.  Dr.  Rodgers  was 
also  a  physician  to  the  Hospital,  and  better  clinical 
teachings  than  his  have  I  never  heard  anywhere. 
The  facts  there  observed  by  him  were  carefully  re- 
corded, and  made  from  time  to  time  the  subject  of 


12 

distinct  clinical  lectures  with  able  comments,  at  his 
own  house  in  Cortlandt  street,  where  the  obstetrical 
lectures  were  always  delivered  to  a  class  varying 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  students,  of  whom,  belonging 
to  this  city,  I  believe  that  the  highly  respected  Drs. 
Manley,  Jno.  Neilson,  and  your  worthy  Vice  Presi- 
dent, Dr.  Thomas  Cock,  with  myself,  alone  remain 
to  tell  of  by-gone  days. 

The    lectures  in   those    days  were    delivered  in 
the  old  edifice  of  the  College,  where  it  now  stands 
— then  a  body  without  wings,  and  which  has  since 
been  remodeled.     It  consisted  of  three  apartments 
— one  for  the  Chemistry  lectures,  which  the  Senior 
class  of  the  College  attended,  and  well  arranged  for 
the  period  ;  one  for  the  Theory  and  Practice,  of  very 
moderate  size ;  a    small  Anatomical  Theatre,   and 
some  smaller  apartments  for  the  Museum  and  dissect- 
ing  rooms.      Materiel   for   dissection    was    scarce, 
and  could  only  be  obtained  by  individual  enterprise, 
and  in  many  such,  now  happily  by  the  existing  state 
of  things,   rendered  unnecessary  to  your  advance- 
ment in  knowlege,   have  I  been   engaged.     I  well 
remember  on  one  occasion  driving,  in  disguise,   a 
cart  containing  eleven  subjects,  from  the  old    Pot- 
ter's field  burying  ground,    sitting  on  the   subjects, 
and  proud  enough  of  my  trophies ;  but  we  were  not 
always  so  fortunate,  being  on  many  occasions  dis- 
covered   and    pursued,    and  obhged   to   leave  our 
spoils  behind  us,  with  only  our  hard  labor  for  our 
pains.     One  little  incident   pf  the  times,    also,  oc- 
curs to  me.     A  German,  who  had  been  hung,  w^as 
given  to  the  College  for  dissection,   and  with  the 
colored  porter,  I  went  in  a  carriage  in  the  evening, 
to  get  the  body.     My  other  associate  was  a  Doc- 


13 

tor  Buchanan,  a  Scotchman,  and  Professor  of  Ob- 
stetrics in  the  College,  residing  in  the  city. 

On  calling  at  his  rooms  to  take  him  up,  I  found 
him  arranging  his  pistols,  and  complaining  of  feel- 
ing very  agueish,  and  with  difficulty  pursuaded  him 
to  proceed.  The  night  was  cold,  and  on  arriving 
on  the  ground,  the  Doctor's  ague  increased  so  rapidly 
and  his  valor  oozed,  like  Bob  Acres',  in  the  Rivals, 
so  freely  from  the  tips  of  his  fingers,  that  he  deci- 
ded to  return  home,  begging  strongly  for  the  use 
of  the  carriage,  which  I  peremptorily  refused  him. 
With  great  difficulty  we  exhumed  the  body,  but 
then  my  colored  associate  also  deserted  me,  declar- 
ing he  could  not  touch  the  subject,  on  account  of 
his  having  been  hung.  I  had,  therefore,  to  lug  the 
body,  attired  in  its  white  robes,  by  my  own  strength, 
to  the  carriage — for  I  had  great  strength  in  those 
days — and  partly  by  force  and  partly  by  mena^ 
ces,  compelled  the  man  to  assist  me  in  getting  the 
body  into  the  carriage — and  what  was  still  more 
difficult,  to  get  in  along  with  it,  so  thoroughly  was 
he  terrified.  On  arriving  at  the  College,  I  found  my 
valorous  associate  slowly  recovering  from  his  ague 
fit,  by  the  aid  of  a  strong  glass  of  brandy  toddy,  and 
deeply  lamenting  his  inability  to  assist  me  on  the 
occasion. 

At  this  time  I  was  Demonstrator  of  Anatomy  to 
Dr.  Post,  a  fact  which  may  account  for  some  of  my 
zeal  in  these  resurrection  adventures.  I  made  ^ra- 
tuitously,  all  the  dissections  for  the  course  of  Anato- 
my and  Surgery,  on  which  latter  subject,  by  the  way, 
I  should  observe,  that  only  twelve  lectures  were 
delivered  on  practical  matters,  and  the  operations 
not  performed  before  the  class.  A  strong  contrast. 
Gentlemen,  to  the  thorough  manner  in  which  sur- 


14 

gery  is  taught  at  the  present  day.  As  to  the  Mu- 
seum, it  was  contained  in  two  rooms,  one  small, 
for  wet,  and  one  large,  for  dry  preparations,  and 
was  well  supplied.  Most  of  the  specimens  Dr. 
Post  brought  with  him  from  Europe,  and  the  rest 
were  furnished  by  the  zeal  of  the  students  and 
Alumni.  There  are  even  now  in  your  Museum,  a 
part  of  which  is  the  same,  specimens  of  my  own 
industry  in  the  way  of  minute  dissection,  a  pursuit 
to  which  I  was  very  partial  and  strongly  recommend 
you  to  follow — a  preparation  of  the  nervous  system 
in  a  small  subject  and  some  of  the  arteries  and 
veins. 

Immediately  on  graduating,  I  set  out  for  London, 
in  company  with  the  late  distinguished  Dr.  John 
Watts,  of  this  city,  at  one  time  President  of  this  In- 
stitution, Avith  the  intention  of  profiting  by  the  in- 
structions of  the  eminent  men  who  at  that  time  held 
the  most  prominent  rank  in  the  surgical  profession 
in  that  great  Metropolis;  among  whom  may  be  nam- 
ed the  two  Clines,  Sir  Astley  Cooper,  John  Aber- 
nethy,  the  two  Bhzards,  and  Sir  Everard  Home,  not 
one  of  whom,  I  grieve  to  say,  survives.  Soon  after 
my  arrival,  I  entered  myself  as  a  pupil  to  the  cele- 
brated Sir  A.  Cooper,  then  Surgeon  to  Guy's  Hos- 
pital, from  whom  I  received  marked  private  atten- 
tions and  kindnesses  never  to  be  forgotten,  and  to 
whose  precepts  and  example  I  owe  the  fondness  for 
surgery,  which,  increasing  with  my  years,  has  given 
me  my  present  position,  and  which  I  will  relinquish 
only  with  my  life.  Although  I  have  ceased  to 
practice  it  from  necessity,  I  still  feel  for  the  noble 
art  of  Surgery  all  the  love,  and  in  its  pursuit,  I 
experience  all  the  pleasure  and  interest  of  my  ear- 
lier days. 


15 

After  two  years,  I  repaired  to  Edinburgh,  then  the 
great  seat  of  Medical  learning  in  Europe,  and  there 
re-joining  Dr.  Watts,  who  had  gone  thither  for  his 
degree,  and  in  company  with  Dr.  Gibson,  of  Phi- 
ladelphia, now  the  eminent  professor  in  the^  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  and  perhaps  others,  whom 
I  have  forgotten,  listened  to  the  great  lessons  of 
Gregory,  Home,  Duncan,  Hope,  Murray,  Playfair, 
Jamieson  and  the  justly  venerated  John  Thompson, 
the  author  of  the  best  monograph  yet  published  on 
Inflammation. 

Furnished  with  a  letter  of  protection  from  Dr.  Jen- 
ner,  whom  I  knew,  and  who  assured  me  that  it  would 
be  sufficient  for  my  purpose,  I  made  a  fruitless  at- 
tempt to  be  smuggled  in  a  fishing  boat  to  Holland, 
intending  to  walk  thence  to  the  Hague,  with  my  pack 
on  my  back.  War  was  then  raging  most  fiercely 
between  France  and  Great  Britain,  and  the  precau- 
tions taken  by  Napoleon  to  prevent  the  entrance  of 
foreigners  into  France  were  so  rigid,  that  my  friends 
restrained  me  almost  by  force  from  my  purpose, 
and  fortunately  for  me,  as  I  thereby,  probably,  es- 
caped a  long  captivity  at  Verdun. 

Permit  me  to  digress  for  a  moment.  Five  and 
thirty  years  elapsed  before  1  saw  again  my  respect- 
ed friend.  Sir  A.  Cooper.  I  called  upon  him  im- 
mediately on  arriving  in  London,  but  he  was  not  at 
home.  I  purposely  left  no  card,  but  called  again 
on  the  following  morning.  I  found  him  at  home, 
and  awaited  my  turn  with  several  in  an  ante-room, 
before  being  ushered  into  his  study — rather  a  shabby 
one.  As  I  entered  I  walked  up  to  him,  and  said, 
holding  out  my  hand,  "  do  you  recollect  me  ?"  He 
looked  at  me  very  intently.  "  Do  not  tell  me,"  said 
he,  and  in  a  moment  afterwards  added,  "  Dr.  Mott.'' 


16 

The  scene  that  followed  I  shall  leave  you  to  im- 
agine.    Sir  A.  Cooper,  indeed,    stood  before   me^ 
but  alas !    how  changed.     He    was,    when   I    last 
saw   him,   magnificently  handsome,  his    hair  pow- 
dered, and  his  beard  very  black.    Now  he  was  infirm 
from  gout,  his  hair  and  beard  gray  and  dishevelled, and 
careless  in  his  attire.     He  was  now  about  sixty-eight 
years  of  age,  and  still  much  engaged    in  practice, 
I  received  much  kind  attention  from  him,  and  even 
saw  him  again  on  my  second  visit  to  England.     The 
last  time  I  ever  saw  him,   he  called  upon  me  at  my 
lodgings,    and  presented  me  with    a   new    forceps 
which  he  had  invented,   for  extracting  calculi  from 
the  urethra,  which  I  still  retain  as  a  memento  of  one 
who  is  closely  associated  with  my  earliest  and  most 
pleasant  recollections.     He  was  a  polished  gentle- 
man, and  his  surgical  reputation  is  engraven  in  in- 
delible characters  on  the  pages  of  Medical  History. 
On  my  return  to  New  York,    in  the  following 
spring,  occurred,  Gentlemen,  an  event  in  my  Hfe,  to 
which  I  refer  with  much  pleasure,  and  for  alluding 
to  which,  I  must  ask  your    good-natured  pardon. 
With  the  consent  of  the  Faculty,  I  obtained  permis- 
sion from  the  trustees  of  Columbia  College  to  de- 
liver, in  the  anatomical  room  of  the  Medical  School, 
a  course  of  lectures  and  demonstrations   on  Oper- 
ative Surgery.     The  course,  though  a  beginning  for 
me,  was  a  thorough  one,  and  the  materiel  was  obtained 
by  my  own  exertions.     Nothing  of  the  kind  had  ever 
before  been  attempted  in  this  city  :  and  I  may,  there- 
fore, Gentlemen,  justly  claim  to  have  been  the  first 
person  to  deliver  private  lectures  on  any  medical 
subject,  and  the  first  to  demonstrate  to  a  class  the 
steps  of  Surgical  operations,  as  then  taught  and  prac- 
tised by  the  highest  professional  authorities. 


17 

Among  those  who  did  me  the  honor  to  attend  my 
prelections,  were  the  celebrated  Dr.  Edward  Miller, 
who  occupies  the  highest  rank  among  the  physicians 
and  authors  of  our  country,  and  a  gentleman  well 
known  to  all  for  his  high  professional  attainments. 
Dr.  John  W.  Francis ;  who  in  after  years,  as  my 
colleague  in  this  and  another  institution,  for  a  long 
period  discharged  the  duties  of  Obstetric  Professor, 
with  credit  to  himself  and  advantage  to  his  hearers. 
I  trust  that  I  shall  be  excused  for  this  allusion  to 
my  early  essay  in  teaching,  upon  which,  at  this 
remote  period,  imperfectly  as  no  doubt  I  performed 
the  duty,  I  confess  that  I  look  back  with  great 
pleasure.  I  owe  to  it,  undoubtedly,  the  subsequent 
honor  of  a  professorship  of  Surgery  in  this  College. 

Within  a  year  of  the  period  of  my  graduation, 
(April  3d,  1807,)  was  established,  through  the  active 
instrumentality  of  its  first  President  and  Professor 
of  the  Institutes,  Dr.  Nicholas  Romayne,  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  this  city.  The 
other  members  of  the  Faculty  consisted,  if  I  remem- 
ber rightly,  of  Dr.  Ed.  Miller,  Professor  of  Theory 
and  Practice ;  Dr.  Jno.  Aug.  Smith,  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Surgery;  Mitchill,  Hosack,  Bruce, 
Dewitt  and  McNeven.  The  College,  which  was 
opened  in  Robinson  street,  then  considered  a  cen- 
tral part  of  the  city,  afterwards  held  its  sessions  in  a 
small  two  story  house  in  Pearl  street,  nearly  opposite 
the  Hospital,  a  few  doors  down  on  the  right  hand  side, 
which  is  still  standing.  Its  apartments  consisted  of 
a  few  benches  and  a  table,  at  which  sat  the  Pro- 
fessor, the  dissections  being  carried  on  in  the  attics. 

This  embryo  state  of  your  Alma  Mater,.  Gentle- 
men, contrasts  remarkably  with  the  amplitude,,  coni- 

2 


18 

fort  and  perfection  of  arrangement  visible  in  every 
part  of  this  noble  edifice,  in  which  I  am  again,  after 
so  long  an  absence,  privileged  to  address  a  medical 
class.  The  course  lasted  then  four  months,  and  the 
class  numbered  from  fifty  to  seventy ;  and  little 
could  the  early  projectors  of  the  College  have 
dreamed  of  the  numerous  array  of  intelligent  youth 
that  now  fills  these  long  and  closely  packed  benches, 
and  gratifies  the  hearts  and  eyes  of  every  friend  of 
the  School,  and  of  those  who  so  zealously  and  faith- 
fully devote  themselves  to  your  instruction ;  nor  of 
the  improvements  which  the  Science  itself,  and  the 
means  of  imparting  and  demonstrating  it,  were  des- 
tined to  undergo. 

This  Faculty  continued  the  rival  of  that  of  Co- 
lumbia College  for  several  years,  with  no  very 
decided  advance,  until  in  1813,  a  coalition  was 
formed  between  the  two,  (as  the  committee  of  Re- 
gents declared  in  its  report,  "  in  the  hope  that  it 
may  tend  to  extinguish  the  feuds  existing  among  the 
present  Professors  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,")  which  led  to  this  becoming  the  only 
School  of  Medicine  in  this  city,  (a  position  which,  as 
you  well  know,  it  retained  for  many  years,)  and  to 
a  vast  increase  of  its  numbers  and  utility. 

The  College  was  now  removed  to  a  building  com- 
modiously  arranged,  in  Barclay  street,  April,  1814. 
The  Faculty,  under  the  new  arrangement,  consisted 
of  Dr.  Samuel  Bard,  President ;  Wright  Post  and 
Jno.  Aug.  Smith,  joint  Professors  of  Anatomy,  Sur- 
gery and  Physiology ;  Dr.  D.  Hosack,  Professor  of 
Theory  and  Practice  ;  Dr.  W.  Hamersly,  Professor 
of  Clinical  Practice  ;  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  Pro 
fessor  of  Materia  Medica  and  Botany ;  Dr.  John  C 
Osborne,    Professor    of    Obstetrics  j    Dr.    Wm, 


19 

McNeven,  Professor  of  Chemistry ;  Dr.  James  S. 
Stringham,  Professor  of  Medical  Jurisprudence ;  Dr. 
J.  W.  Francis,  Professor  of  Materia  Medica ;  Dr. 
Benj.  Dewitt,  Vice-President,  and  Professor  of  Na- 
tural Philosophy ;  and  myself,  of  Surgery.  This  office 
I  had  latterly  held  in  the  Faculty  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege, it  having  been  conferred  upon  me,  wholly  un- 
solicited, through  the  kind  intercession  of  my  worthy 
friend.  Dr.  Post.  Devoted,  as  I  then  was,  to  that 
department  of  the  profession,  and  eager  for  distinc- 
tion, I  leave  you.  Gentlemen,  to  imagine  the  delifrht 
which  I  experienced,  when,  meeting  me  in  the  street 
soon  after  the  receipt  of  my  appointment,  Dr.  Post 
got  out  of  his  gig,  and  announced  to  me  the  gratify- 
ing and  wholly  unexpected  intelligence. 

Dr.  iSamuel  Bard,  first  President  of  this  College 
after  its  re-organization  in  1811,  was  advanced  in 
Hfe,  and  had  retired  from  a  more  lucrative  and 
respectable  practice  than  was  enjoyed  by  any  of  his 
cotemporaries.  He  resided  at  his  country  seat  at 
Hyde  Park,  and  came  to  the  city  only  occasionally 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  President,  and 
at  intervals  in  consultation  on  cases  of  importance. 
He  was  small  in  stature,  and  hard-featured,  but 
exemplary  as  a  man  and  a  Christian  ;  of  vast  expe- 
rience as  a  physician,  and  in  his  day  considered  the 
soundest  in  the  city.  To  a  "  memorable  discourse 
of  his  at  the  Medical  Graduation  in  1769,"  when 
Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Columbia  College,  "  warmly 
and  pathetically,"  as  Dr.  Middleton  says,  "setting 
forth  the  necessity  and  usefulness  of  a  public  infirm- 
ary," is  due  the  establishment  of  the  New  York 
Hospital,  a  noble  monument  of  his  benevolence. 
Among  his  pupils,  I  may  mention  my  father,  who 
studied  with  him  during  the  Revolution,  and  as  I 


30 

have  before  said,  Dr.  Hosack.  In  manners  he  was 
austere,  but  dignified  as  a  President.  His  public 
discourses  were  ably  written,  and  displayed  sound 
judgment  and  much  good  feeling.  He  was  the 
author  of  a  well-known  and  still  valuable  text-book 
on  Obstetrics,  and  died  at  the  age  of  80 ;  Dr.  Post 
succeeding  him  in  his  office. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Dewitt,  at  one  time  Vice-President, 
and  Professor  of  the  Institutes,  Materia  Medica  and 
Chemistry,  was  not  long  attached  to  the  College. 
He  was  a  man  of  talent,  but  of  indolent  habits  ;  easy 
in  his  circumstances,  and  devoted  rather  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  the  Natural  Sciences,  than  of  that  of 
Medicine  in  particular.  To  his  exertions  the  Col- 
lege owed  the  liberal  grant  of  $30,000  from  the 
Legislature.  A  successful  politician,  he  obtained 
the  situation  of  Port  Physician,  and  died,  in  the 
performance  of  his  duties,  of  yellow  fever,  at  Sta- 
ten  Island,  in  1819. 

Of  Dr.  Romayne  it  may  be  said,  that  he  was  a 
man  of  much  eloquence  and  talent;  wealthy,  and 
indifferent  to  the  active  duties  of  the  Profession, 
but  eager  for  its  advancement  and  that  of  the  inte- 
rests of  Medical  Science.  To  his  influence  and 
exertions  is  due  the  establishment  of  this  College, 
the  duties  of  Professor  of  the  Institutes  in  which,  he 
performed  most  creditably  for  a  few  years.  In  per- 
son he  was  tall  and  handsome,  but  extremely  fleshy. 
He  lectured  extemporaneously  with  fluency  and 
cflect.  To  him  is  also  due  the  establishment  of  the 
State  and  County  Medical  Societies  of  New  York, 
(July,  1806.)  He  was  first  President  of  the  State 
Medical  Society,  at  Albany,  and  of  that  of  this 
ICounty,  and  it  so  happened  that  I  was  the  first  per- 
son examined,  at  his  request,  by  its  Censors,  under 


21 

the  new  law  of  its  organization.  Dr.  Milspaugh,  of 
Orange  county,  was  the  second.  To  this  ordeal  I 
submitted,  not  from  necessity,  but  from  a  desire  to 
serve  tlie  interests  of  the  new  institution.  The  So- 
ciety convened,  and  the  examinations  were  held  in 
a  room  in  the  old  Federal  Hall  in  Wall  street, 
situated  about  where  the  Custom  House  now 
stands,  and  in  which,  previous  to  the  existence  of 
the  City  Hall,  the  courts  were  held.  The  censors 
were  Drs.  Romayne,  Post,  Hosack,  and  other  mag- 
nates, and  the  examinations  were,  I  assure  you,  per- 
fectly honest  and  sufficiently  rigid. 

The  connection  of  Dr.  John  Aug.  Smith  with  this 
Institution  is  so  recent,  as  to  render  unnecessary 
any  lengthened  notice  of  him  at  my  hands.  Ap- 
pointed to  the  Professorship  of  Anatomy  in  1808, 
he  continued  to  lecture  until  1814.  After  a  retire- 
ment of  some  years,  spent  in  other  situations  of 
trust  and  importance,  from  the  Professorship  of 
Anatomy  in  this  College,  Dr.  Smith  again  (I  think 
about  the  year  1833)  assumed  the  duties  of  that 
chair,  on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Post,  who  had  been 
a  lecturer  on  Anatomy  in  this  city  for  forty  years. 
He  subsequently,  as  you  know,  became  its  Presi- 
dent ;  and  still,  though  retired  from  professional  life, 
public  and  private,  lives  to  witness  the  continued 
prosperity  and  advance  of  the  College  in  usefulness, 
and  in  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  Profession. 

I  cherish  for  the  memory  of  none  of  my  departed 
colleagues,  a  warmer  and  kindlier  feeling  of  respect 
and  attachment,  than  for  that  of  the  kind-hearted, 
celebrated  and  eccentric  Saml.  L.  Mitchill.  He 
was  our  national  Humboldt ;  his  fame  as  a  savant 
and  naturalist  is  identified  with  the  history  of  Ame- 
rican Science.     The  tenacity  of  his  memory  was 


n 

equalled  only  by  his  thirst  for  knowledge,  of  which, 
on  every  variety  of  subjects,  he  possessed  an  inex- 
haustible fund.     As  a  lecturer,  he  was  entertaining 
and  instructive,  but  too  discursive  to  be  practical, 
for  the  reason  that  his  teeming  mind   continually 
suggested  to  him  new  subjects  for  discussion,  irrele 
vant  to  the  matter  in  hand ;  and  too  good-natured, 
familiar,  unconstrained  and  even  grotesque   in   his 
manner,  to  be  dignified.     Nevertheless   he  was  a 
great  favorite  with  the  students,  who  listened  with 
respectful  wonder  to  the  proofs  he  continually  gave 
of  his  varied  acquirements.     His  knowledge  of  the 
Materia    Medica  was  profound,   and  his  lectures, 
when  he  adhered  to  his  text,  eminently  valuable. 
He  was  one  of  the  attending  physicians  to  the  New 
York  Hospital  for  many  years ;  and  for  accuracy  of 
diagnosis,   skill  in  the  exhibition  of  remedies,  and 
perspicuity  as  a  clinical  teacher,  he  had  few  equals. 
He  belonged  to  the  old  Edinburgh  school,  and  the 
character  and  pure  Latinity  of  his  prescriptions,  for 
all  such,  even  of  diet,  he  invariably  made  in  Latin, 
forcibly  recalled  to  my  mind  the  lessons  of  Home 
and  Duncan,  in  the  Infirmary  of  that  great  city,  to 
which  I  had  listened  with  so  much  pleasure  and  ad- 
vantage.    To  a  gentleman  who  was  boasting  to  him 
of  the  extent  of  his  memory,  he  once  gravely  said, 
"  Sir,  I  have  forgotten  more   than  you  have  ever 
known."     And  I  remember  him  once  asserting  in  an 
introductory,  that  whereas   the   great  Cuvier    had 
said,  show  him  a  bone  and  he  could  name  the  ani- 
mal— show  him  a  scale  and  he  could  almost  name 
the  fish.     For  many  years  he  was  associated  with 
Drs.  Elihu  Smith  and  Edward  Miller,  in  the  editor- 
ship of  the  first  medical  periodical  of  this  city  and 
country,  the   New  York  Medical  Repository ;  and 


33 

his  many  contributions  to  it  and  his  voluminous 
writings  on  Medical  and  the  Natural  Sciences,  suffi- 
ciently attest  his  vast  industry,  and  the  extent  and 
mightiness  of  his  attainments  and  intellect.  He 
died  at  an  advanced  age,  maintaining  to  the  last  his 
scientific  oracularity,  and  leaving  a  name  unsur- 
passed among  his  cotemporaries — perhaps  by  that 
of  any  of  his  successors — imperishable  as  the  sci- 
ence he  cultivated  and  adorned. 

Our  Professor  of  Chemistry  was  Wm.  Jas.  Mc. 
Neven,  a  Native  of  Ireland.  He  participated  largely 
in  the  laudable,  but  unsucessful  attempt  to  establish 
the  hberties  of  his  unhappy  country,  in  which  the 
illustrious,  but  ill-fated  patriot,  Robert  Emmet,  fell 
a  victim  to  his  zeal  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  to 
to  the  tyranny  of  the  mother  countrv  ;  and  in  com- 
pany with  Thomas  Emmet,  William  Sampson  and 
Dr.  Gumming,  expiated  his  so  called  treason  by  a  four 
year's  captivity  in  the  fort  of  Inverness,  in  the  north 
of  Scotland.  These  noble  and  talented  men,  being 
pardoned,  on  condition  of  self-expatriation,  came 
together  to  this  country  about  the  year  1805  or  1806. 

I  well  remember  meeting  Dr.  McNeven  for  the 
first  time,  at  the  New  York  Hospital,  whither  he 
came  in  company  with  Dr.  J.  R.  B.  Rogers,  then 
one  of  the  physicians  of  that  Institution.  He  was 
then  a  young  man,  and  though  of  short  stature, 
his  bearing  was  noble  and  prepossessing.  His 
costume  to  an  American  eye  was  peculiar  :  he 
wore  knee-breeches  and  top-boots,  the  dress  of  the 
English  gentlemen  at  that  period.  Soon  after  his 
arrival  here,  Columbia  College  conferred  upon  him 
an  honorary  degree,  in  testimony  of  respect  for  his 
high  professional  attainments,  and  never  was  the 
honor  better  merited  nor  bestowed.     His  practice 


24 

was  never  extensive,  but  he  was  highly  respected 
for  his  learning  and  integrity.  He  entered  the  are- 
na of  politics — a  strife  congenial  to  his  nature  and 
attained  to  some  important  and  responsible  stations 
in  the  gift  of  the  State,  which  he  filled  with  credit 
to  himself  and  advantage  to  the  pubhc.  After  a 
residence  here  of  several  years,  he  was  appointed 
to  the  chair  of  Chemistry  in  this  Institution,  a  posi- 
tion for  which  his  learning  eminently  qualified  him, 
but  in  which  his  lack  of  dexterity  as  a  manipulator 
detracted  from  his  success  as  a  lecturer.  He  subse- 
quently, as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  mention,  taught 
the  Materia  Medica  in  this  city,  and  in  both  capa- 
cities brought  to  bear,  not  only  the  accumulated  stores 
of  European  learning  which  he  had  acquired  from 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  several  of  her  lan- 
guages, but  the  cultivation  and  graces  derived  from 
a  finished  classical  education.  He  died  not  many 
years  ago  in  this  city,  leaving  behind  him  the  char- 
acter of  an  ardent  patriot,  a  truly  learned,  upright 
and  estimable  man. 

There  remains  to  be  noticed  only  Dr.  John  C.  Os- 
born.  Professor  of  Midwifery,  less  known  to  poster- 
ity than  perhaps  any  other  of  the  Faculty.  By  birth 
a  New  Englander,  he  came  here  from  the  South,  and 
by  the  great  urbanity  of  his  manner,  and  his  great 
literary  taste  and  acquirements,  attained  to  a  large 
and  lucrative  practice.  He  was  a  pleasing  lecturer, 
excelling,  I  think,  on  the  diseases  of  Women  and 
Children ;  was  considered  able  in  the  peculiar  de- 
partment in  which  he  taught,  and  was  often  select- 
ed by  the  higher  classes  as  consultant  in  cases  of 
difficulty,  rather  to  the  chagrin  of  some  of  his  co- 
temporaries. 

He  was  Professor  for  some  years,  but  declining 


25 

health  compelled  him  to  retire,  and  he  soon  after 
died  at  St.  Croix,  of  phthisis,  in  1819.  The  lectures 
on  Midwifery  were  then  delivered  by  Dr.  Hosack, 
until  the  appointment  in  1820,  of  his  faithful  and 
attached  friend  and  protege,  Dr.  J.  W,  Francis,  the 
Professor  of  Institutes  and  Medical  Jurisprudence 
on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Stringham,  who  for  many 
years  acceptably  and  usefully  fulfilled  the  duties  of 
Obstetrical  Professor  i  n  this  city.  Dr.  Francis  still 
enjoys  an  extensive  practice  and  a  prominent  repu- 
tation, and  is  well  known,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  as  a  man  of  ready  wit  and  eloquence,  the 
author  of  many  learned  and  able  public  discourses 
and  valuable  contributions  to  Medical  Science,  and  as 
possessing  great  general  literary  taste  and  erudition. 

Under  this  last  named  Faculty,  Professors  Post, 
Hosack,  McNeven,  Mitchill,  Francis  and  myself,  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  progressed  for 
several  years  in  harmony  and  prosperity ;  the  class 
yearly  increasing,  until  it  at  length  numbered  be- 
tween two  and  three  hundred,  and  the  institution 
yearly  growing  in  the  confidence  and  regard  of  the 
Profession.  I  will  venture  in  behalf  of  that  Faculty 
to  declare,  that  one  and  all,  each  in  his  degree,  con- 
scientiously endeavored  to  do  his  duty,  and  that  the 
degree  was  bestowed  by  them  without  fear  or  favor, 
and  with  a  conscientious  regard  to  the  qualifications 
of  the  candidate. 

A  change,  however,  was  destined  at  length  to 
come  over  the  spirit  of  this  pleasing  dream.  Poli- 
tics, which,  like  the  exhalations  from  the  fabled 
Upas  tree,  poisons  every  thing  that  comes  within 
the  reach  of  its  baleful  influences,  obtained  an  en- 
trance into  the  councils  of  the  College — and  in  no 
long  time  resulted  in  the  enactment  of  certain  reso- 


26 

lutions  by  the  Regents,  so  unpopular  with  the  Fa- 
cuky,  that,  in  the  year  1826,  they  very  reluctantly 
resigned  in  a  body. 

Determined,  however,  not  to  be  idle,  or  to  sit 
down  quietly  in  their  retirement,  they  set  to  work 
immediately  and  erected  the  building.  No.  68  Duane 
street,  known  as  Rutgers'  College,  so  called  be- 
cause endowed  by  Col.  Rutgers,  a  distinguished 
patriot  of  the  revolution,  and  also  because  it  was 
first  a  branch  of  Rutgers'  (classical)  College  in 
New  Brunswick,  N.  J.  and  subsequently  of  Geneva 
College  in  this  state.  The  removal  of  Dr.  Mc- 
Neven  to  the  Chair  of  Materia  Medica  in  this 
new  School,  led  to  the  appointment  of  Dr.  Griscom 
to  that  of  Chemistry,  and  the  Anatomical  chair 
was  entrusted  to  the  distinguished,  learned  and  am- 
iable John  D.  Godman  ;  in  the  perfection  of  his  ana- 
tomical knowledge,  and  in  eloquence  and  efficiency 
as  a  lecturer,  not  surpassed  in  this,  and  perhaps  not 
in  any  other  country.  He  was  one  of  the  meteors 
whose  brightness  dazzles  for  a  moment  ere  it  fades, 
and  leaves  the  darkness  more  visible  than  before. 
Ill  health,  accelerated  by  ceaseless  mental  and  bod- 
ily toil,  (for  although  lecturing  and  residing  here,  he 
edited  and  largely  contributed  to  the  American 
Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  published  in  Phila- 
delphia,) compelled  him  to  resign  his  Professorship, 
the  duties  of  which  I  fulfilled  during  the  remainder 
of  the  term,  together  with  those  of  my  own  chair, 
lecturing  twice  a  day,  and  attending  to  my  then  ex- 
tensive private  practice  and  to  the  Hospital.  Dr. 
Godman,  after  a  visit  to  the  West  Indies,  returned 
to  Philadelphia,  where  he,  not  long  after,  died  of 
phthisis,  maintaining  himself  and  family  to  the  last 
by  the  incessant  labor  of  his  pen  ;  and  displaying  at 


27 

the  close  of  his  short,  but  truly  glorious  career, 
an  eminently  Christian  spirit,  and  contradicting,  in 
his  own  person,  the  too  common  idea  that  Medical 
Science  tends  to  Infidelity.  This  country,  in  my 
opinion,  has  produced  few  abler  men  in  his  profes- 
sion than  the  late  John  D.  Godman.  He  was  the 
most  adroit  dissector  that  I  have  ever  seen,  perform- 
ing all  his  dissections  with  precision  and  rapidity  upon 
the  subject  on  the  table  before  the  class,  and  as  a 
teacher  could  not  be  surpassed ;  vv^hile  his  gentle 
manners  made  him  extremel}^  popular  with  the  class. 

His  place  was  supplied,  in  1828,  by  Dr.  George 
Bushe,  an  Irish  gentleman,  connected  with  the 
British  army,  of  unquestionable  professional  attain- 
ments, but  unamiable  temper,  who  remained  at- 
tached to  Rutgers'  Medical  College  until  its  close. 
He  afterwards  attained  to  an  extensive  private  prac- 
tice in  this  city,  and  to  some  celebrity  as  a  surgeon, 
but,  like  his  predecessor,  died  of  phthisis  in  a  few 
years ;  unlike  him  in  every  thing  save  his  talents 
and  his  fate.  Dr.  John  Griscom,  our  Professor  of 
Chemistry,  had  long  been  a  private  teacher  of  that 
Science  in  this  city,  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  a  man  of  science,  an  excellent  practical 
chemist,  and  of  irreproachable  moral  purity. 

After  a  prosperous  existence  of  five  years,  an  un- 
foreseen defect  in  the  charter  of  Geneva  College, 
conflicting  with  the  laws  regulating  the  practice  of 
Medicine  in  this  state,  compelled  the  discontinuance 
of  its  medical  branch  in  this  city,  by  making  its  de- 
grees illegal. 

To  return  to  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons. In  1826,  upon  the  resignation  of  the  old,  a 
new  Faculty  was  necessarily  appointed  b)^  the  Re- 
gents, composed  as  follows  :  President  and  Profes- 


2^ 

sor  of  Institutes,  John  Watts,  M.  D. ;  Professor  of 
Anatomy,  Dr.  John  Augustine  Smith  ;  Professor  of 
Sur(;^ry,  Dr.  Alexander  H.  Stevens  ;  Professor  of 
Practice,  Dr.  Joseph  M.  Smith ;  Professor  of  Materia 
Medica,  Dr.  John  B.  Beck  ;  Professor  of  Obstetrics, 
Dr.  Edward  Delafield,  and  Dr.  Dana,  Professor  of 
Chemistry.  Dr.  Dana  died  in  the  following  year,  and 
was  succeeded  by  your  present  distinguished  Pro- 
fessor, equally  eminent  for  botanical  and  geological 
learning.  Dr.  John  Torrey.  About  the  year  I83r, 
Dr.  John  R.  Rhinelander  was  appointed  Professor 
of  Anatomy — Dr.  John  Aug.  Smith  confining  himself 
to  the  duties  of  the  chair  of  Physiology,  and  assum- 
ing, on  the  death  of  Dr.  Watts,  the  Presidency  of 
the  College.  About  this  time,  also,  I  received  the 
honor  of  an  appointment  in  this  College,  as  Profes- 
sor of  Operative  Surgery  with  Surgical  and  Path- 
ological Anatomy,  and  continued  attached  to  it  un- 
til the  year  1834,  when  failing  health,  the  result  of 
nearly  thirty  years  of  continuous  professional  labor, 
unrelieved  by  change  of  scene,  or  recreation,  com- 
pelled me  abruptly  to  suspend  my  lectures  and  seek 
abroad  for  its  restoration.  My  travels  in  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa,  and  my  subsequent  career,  it  is 
unnecessary  for  me  to  allude  to. 

The  tempting  influences  of  opportunity,  combin- 
ed with  an  ambition,  not,  I  hope,  wholly  reprehensi- 
ble, to  establish  a  new  school,  and  an  ardent  fond- 
ness for  the  bu>iiness  of  medical  teaching,  so  long 
my  greatest  pride  and  pleasure  and  one  of  the  chief 
occupations  of  my  life,  will  plead  with  every  generous 
mind,  I  trust,  for  new  associations  and  an  estrange- 
ment from  a  connection  so  long  and  happily  maintained 
a  connection,  broken  it  is  true,  but  never  forgotten. 

In   1837,   Dr.  Stevens  retired  from  the  chair  of 


29 

Surgery,  which  was  filled  first,  by  the  appointment  of 
Dr.  Goldsmith,  as  lecturer,  and  in  1840,  by  that  of 
your  present  able  and  eloquent  Professor,  Dr.  Park- 
er. In  1839,  Dr.  Watts  replaced  Dr.  Rhinelander, 
and  the  present  zealous  and  able  incumbent  of  the 
Obstetrical  chair,  (Dr.  Gilman,)  succeeded  Dr.  Del- 
afield  in  1841.  Lastly  I  should  not  omit  to  say, 
that  within  a  few  years,  Alex.  H.  Stevens,  M.  D., 
formerly  Professor  of  Surgery,  was  elected  to  the 
Presidency  of  this  Institution,  (on  the  retirement 
of  Dr.  Jno.  Aug.  Smith,)  and  appointed  Emeritus 
Professor  of  Surgery,  by  the  Regents  :  honors  richly 
deserved  and  worthily  bestowed  ;  and  that  Dr. 
Alonzo  Clark,  has  lately  succeeded  to  the  chair  of 
Physiology,  which  could  not  be  more  ably  filled. 

But  for  the  manifest  indelicacy  of  eulogising  them 
to  their  faces.  Gentlemen,  how  willingly  could  I 
bear  my  testimony  to  the  high  literary  attainments 
and  practical  superiority  of  your  Professors  of 
Practice  (Joseph  M.  Smith)  and  the  Materia 
Medica  (J.  B.  Beck) — to  the  zeal  and  intimate 
knowledge  of  their  several  branches,  and  skill  in 
demonstrating  and  teaching  them,  of  your  Profes- 
sors of  Anatomy  (Watts)  and  Physiology  (Clark)  all 
of  whose  diplomas,  I  believe,  bear  my  name,  and  whom 
I  delight,  consequently,  to  rank  among  my  pupils. 

But  there  is  one  whom  I  cannot  refrain  from 
mentioning — not  to  praise,  for  that  is  unneces- 
sary, but  in  the  pure  spirit  of  friendship  and  es- 
teem— your  respected  President — my  greatest  com- 
petitor in  the  arduous  race  for  fame  and  fortune, 
and  always  and  now,  I  am  proud  to  say — though 
many  attempts  have  been  made  at  times  to  estrange 
us — my  friend,  and  once  again  my  colleague.  I 
see  him  at  your  head,  and  at  the  head  of  his  Profes- 


30 

sion.  I  see  this  College  prospering  under  his  wise 
and  efficient  administration,  and  with  all  my  heart,  I 
wish  him  length  of  days  and  health  to  preside  over  it, 
and  the  Institution  itself  all  the  success,  to  which  a 
ceaseless  zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  student  and  the 
Profession,  on  the  part  of  its  officers,  and  an  un- 
varying rectitude  of  conduct  amid  the  competition 
to  which  it  has  been  subjected,  so  fully  entitle  it. 

Gentle3ien  of  the  Class  : 

I  have  so  far  protracted  these,  to  me,  agree- 
able reminiscences  of  my  past  connection  with 
this  College,  as  explanatory  of  the  interest  I  take, 
and  have  ever  taken,  in  its  welfare,  and  the 
pleasure  I  feel  in  my  re-association  with  it,  that 
my  remarks,  introductory  to  my  lectures,  must 
be  very  brief.  To-morrow,  at  eleven,  I  meet  you, 
with  the  intention  of  commencing  a  demonstration 
of  the  Relative  Anatomy  of  the  more  important  re- 
gions which  are  the  seats  of  capital  surgical  opera- 
tions, and  the  modes  of  performing  them.  No  spe- 
cies of  anatomical  knowledge  is  as  essential  to  the 
surgeon,  as  Relative  Anatomy.  Gifted  with  it,  the 
knife  penetrates  safely  and  confidently  into  the 
most  important  parts ;  errors  and  dangers  are  avoid- 
ed ;  and  the  reputation  of  the  surgeon,  the  success 
of  the  operation,  and  the  life  of  the  patient,  are 
alike  secure.  Without  it,  the  hand  trembles — hesi- 
tates— vital  structures  are  invaded — failure  is  the  re- 
sult, and  the  Science  suffers  by  the  bungling  of  the 
pretender.  Relative  Anatomy  is  to  the  surgeon 
what  the  compass  is  to  the  mariner.  Without  it,  his 
bark  drifts  unmanageable  upon  the  waters,  until 
stranded  upon  the  nearest  shore.  With  it,  he 
ploughs    in   safety   the   fathomless   and    boundless 


31 

ocean  to  his  destined  haven,  avoiding  shoals  and 
shores,  in  triumph  and  in  safety.  To  all  who  de- 
sign to  be  surgeons,  1  commend,  with  all  earnest- 
ness, its  careful  and  assiduous  study.  Let  no  man, 
if  he  value  the  life  of  a  patient,  the  interests  of  his 
profession,  his  OAvn  reputation,  and,  dearer  than  all, 
his  own  peace  of  mind,  venture  to  put  a  knife  into 
a  part  with  whose  relative  anatomy  he  is  not  as  fa- 
miliar as  with  his  alphabet. 

And  why  should  you  not  all  be  surgeons  ?  It  is 
true  that  certain  physical  requisites  assist  in  ma- 
king one  :  a  clear  eye,  a  steady  hand,  a  calm  and 
imperturbable  spirit.  But  these,  Gentlemen,  in  at 
least  a  very  great  degree,  may  be  acquired.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  have  the  thews  and  sinews  of  a 
Liston  to  become  a  very  useful  operator.  I  know 
a  very  excellent  surgeon,  who  is  extremely  near 
sighted  ;  and  Dr.  Physick  himself  never  approached 
an  operation  without  a  feeling  of  trepidation.  But 
when  he  began  to  cut,  his  nervousness  vanished ! 
and  why  ?  Because  he  had  the  relative  anatomy  of 
the  parts  at  the  ends  of  his  fingers.  It  is  this  knowl- 
edge that  will  give  firmness  to  your  hands  and 
courage  to  your  hearts,  and  render  you,  with  a  little 
practice,  competent  to  any  emergency.  Acquaint 
yourselves  thoroughly,  Gentlemen,  with  the  rela- 
tive surgical  anatomy  of  the  parts  concerned  in 
gre^t  operations,  and  with  the  steps  necessary  for 
performing  them,  and  then  go  boldly  on  and  suffer 
no  opportunity  of  practice  to  escape  you.  You 
may  never  make  a  very  great^  but  you  may  make, 
what  is  of  quite  as  much  use  in  your  generation, 
a  very  good  surgeon- 

With  the  instruction  you  will  here  obtain,  if  dil- 
igent, I  hope  there  is  not  one  of  you  who  will  be 


32 

obliged  to  send  for  some  one  else,  it  /  be  miles 
off,  to  perform  a  surgical  operatio  ibr  him  in 
some  pressing  case :  a  duty,  Gentlemen,  which,  as 
the  profession  is  constituted  in  this  country  and  as 
Surgery  is  here  taught,  he  should  have  been  able 
to  have  accomplished  for  himself.  Ground  your- 
selves then  thoroughly  here,  and  begin.  If  you  nev- 
er begin,  you  can  never  go  on.  Dissect — dissect — 
minutely  as  you  will,  but  never  neglect  your  Rel- 
ative Anatomy.  Remember  that  you  must  engrave 
this  knowledge  upon  the  minutest  fibre  of  your 
nerve  matter,  so  as  to  reproduce  it  instantly  at  will. 
You  may  not  always  have  an  opportunity  to  apply 
to  your  books,  or  plates, — less  than  all  to  the  Cadaver. 
A  strangulated  Hernia  may  present  itself  in  the 
dead  of  night,  and  at  a  great  distance  from  your  home : 
— or,  from  a  gaping  wound,  may  be  issuing  the  pur- 
ple torrent  of  the  life's  blood,  and  the  face  of  the 
sufferer  paling  in  death  before  your  eyes.  There  is 
no  time  for  delay ;  and  I  would  have  you  leave 
these  halls  so  thoroughly  well  educated  as  surgeons, 
as  that,  then  and  there,  you  could  sit  dow^n  and 
calmly  return  the  intestine,  or  lay  bare  the  bleeding 
vessel,  or  its  fountain  head,  and  tie  it — and  so  save 
your  patient  from  delay  and  danger,  yourselves  from 
obloquy,  and  your  Profession  from  reproach,  I 
will  not  present  to  you  the  converse  of  this  picture. 
I  urge  it  on  you  all  to  strive  to  make  yourself 
surgeons — good  surgeons  at  least,  and  great  ones  if 
you  please.  Such  you  may  be,  and  for  the  sake 
of  your  profession,  yourselves,  and  the  welfare  of 
humanity,  you  ought  to  be.  And  it  is  my  object 
to  aid  you  in  this  endeavour  to  the  best  of  my  abili- 
ties. 


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